A Comparative Study On Feminine Consciousness In The Poetry Of Dickinson And Rossetti

Christina Rossetti?1830-1894?and Emily Dickinson?1830-1886?were famous female poets of the 19^th century in the United Kingdom and the United States.They had a profound influence on later generations of poets.Given the the fact that the UK and the US became modern industrial societies long before China;and because of the translation problem,it was not surprising that foreign scholars had a longer research tradition and a more in-depth study of their lives and their poetry than Chinese literature had.Most domestic studies focused on the content and the themes of their expression.The approach to and depth of exploration of female poets'creative feelings and feminine consciousness was still less studied.This thesis discussed the feminine consciousness in the poetry,mainly based on The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson?1976?and Christina Rossetti:The Complete Poems?2001?.The thesis consisted of five chapters.Through close reading,it took lyrical subject of the poetry,namely,views of love,nature,faith and death,as the breakthrough point.The thesis dissected how the female individual consciousness of the poetesses was reflected in and expressed through poetry based on the feminist literary theory,which was supported by Elaine Showalter,Virginia Woolf and Simone de Beauvoir's key concepts.In the 19^th-century England and America,women writers started to realize that their subordinate position in society.Their special living conditions and perspectives spurred them to master a unique style of writing which was distinct from that of men.There was a common feminine perspective in the texts of Dickinson and Rossetti's poems.It was found out through the comparative study that the two poetesses had similar understandings of love,nature,belief and death.Although their expressions were different,their works were not only full of feminine traits,but also enriching the female literary tradition.They dared to stress the value of being a woman and were in pursuit for the spirit of freedom,that indicated,their feminine consciousness begun to awaken.